Death penalty protestors gather in front of the Texas State Capitol every year on the weekend before All Souls' Day, or The Day of the Dead, which falls on November second. This Tuesday happens to also be Election Day.

For the men leading the procession from the Capitol, down Congress Avenue to 6th Street, it’s a tough walk. They were once on Death Row. Evidence exonerated them. The journey's been an especially hard one for Gregory Wilhoite. After he was freed, an accident put him in a wheelchair.

“For whatever reason, I'm convinced that God's got a job for me, so I'm a man on a mission, and the mission is educating people about the realities of capital punishment,” Wilhoite says.

He used to be pro death penalty until he found himself on death row for a crime that evidence would later show he did not commit. Another Death Row survivor, Shujaa Graham, says he made a lot of promises while he was there.

“I promised a lot of prisoners that once I was released from prison that I would fight and try to see that they would be able to survive themselves,” Graham says.

The survivors here are not just ex-prisoners. Bill Pelke's grandmother was murdered by four teenage girls. One got the death penalty.

“Originally I supported the judge's decision,” Pelke says. “But I went through a transformation and became convinced that execution is not the solution.”

Some protestors carried signs and shouted chants against Governor Rick Perry, a death penalty proponent. Not everyone at the Capitol agrees with those views.

“I am for the death penalty,” Mike Smith, visiting from Houston, says. “But I also agree to freedom of speech, and it's a good thing that they can voice their opinions.”

Sylvia Garza is voicing her opinion. Her son Robert was convicted under the law of parties.

“It's not a crime to be in a car behind some people that committed a murder,” Garza says. “He didn’t commit the murder.”

Many Death Row inmates claim innocence, including Rodney Reed of Bastrop. Now the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding whether Reed will get to walk this walk with other death penalty survivors.

Reed’s brother, Rodrick Reed, says, “If he wins this appeal, then my brother will come home and be a free man so that's what, that's what we're shooting for.”

How important the death penalty issue is remains to be seen at the ballot box on Election Day. According to several recent polls, immigration and the economy are the two top issues on voters' minds.

Texas has executed 17 people so far this year. The state executed 24 people last year. There are currently 333 people on death row in Texas.

There she was, thrown to the pavement by a Republican in a checkered shirt. Another Republican thrusts his foot in between her legs and presses down with all his weight to pin her to the curb. Then a Republican leader comes over and viciously stomps on her head with his foot. You hear her glasses crunch under the pressure. Holding her head down with his foot, he applies more force so she can't move. Her skull and brain are now suffering a concussion.

The young woman's name is Lauren Valle, but she is really all of us. For come this Tuesday, the right wing -- and the wealthy who back them -- plan to take their collective boot and bring it down hard on not just the head of Barack Obama but on the heads of everyone they simply don't like.

Teachers union? The boot!

Muslim-looking people? The boot!

Thinking of retiring soon? The boot!

Living in a house you can no longer afford? The boot!

Doing a bit better with your minimum wage? The boot!

Stem cell research, the bullet train, reversing global warming? Ha! The boot for all of you!

What? You like your kids being covered by your health plan 'til they're 26? The boot for them and the boot for you!

In love with someone of your own gender? A double boot up the ass for every single one of you sick SOBs!

Hoping there's a few jobs left here in the U.S. when you graduate? How 'bout just a nice boot to your head instead?

And most importantly, the last boot is saved for the black man who probably wasn't born here, definitely isn't a Christian and possibly might be the Antichrist sent here to oversee the destruction of our very way of life. A boot to your head, Obama-devil!

Yes, one big boot is poised to stomp out whatever hopey-changey thing we might have had two years ago and secure this country in the hands of the oligarchs and the culture police.

And if they win on Tuesday, they plan to show no mercy. They will not speak of bipartisanship or olive branches or tolerate any filibuster threats. They will come in and do the job with a mandate they'll perceive the electorate will have given them. They will not fart around for two years like the Democrats did. They will not "search for compromise" or "find middle ground." They will not meet you halfway on the playing field. They know that touchdowns aren't scored at the 50-yard line. Unlike our guys, they're not stupid or spineless.

Make no mistake about it, my friends. A perfect storm has gathered of racists, homophobes, corporatists and born agains and they are on fire. Two years of a black man who secretly holds socialist beliefs being the boss of them is more than they can stomach. They've been sick to death since the night of 11/04/08 and they are ready to purge. They won't need a rope and tree this time to effect the change they seek (why bother when a nice shoe on another's skull will do just fine, thank you).

They simply need to get their base to the polls (done), convince enough people Obama is responsible for the fact they don't have a job or a secure home (done), and then hope enough of us Obama-voters are so frustrated, disappointed and downright mad at the Dems (done) that we'll either stay home Tuesday or, if we vote, we won't be carpooling with 10 others to the polls.

Done? Or not?

These Republicans mean business. Their boots are all shined and ready. But they've got one huge problem:

The majority of Americans don't agree with them.

The majority want the troops home. The majority want true universal health coverage. The majority want the thievery on Wall Street to be stopped. The majority believe that global warming is happening, that social security shouldn't be privatized and that unions are a good thing.

Too bad the majority party has done precious little to bring about the change for which the majority voted. Yes, change takes time. But try telling that to someone who hasn't worked in two years. Or who hears the knock of the foreclosure sheriff at the door. The booted-up minority knows how to make hay in a situation like this. All they need is us, the disappointed, dismayed, disgusted us.

What say you? Stay home and punish the weak-kneed, sell-out Democrats? Or spend every free moment you have between now and Tuesday trying to protect what little progress has been made so we can live to fight another day (even if it is with "allies" like a Democratic Party that will more than likely still not get the message of what they need to do -- and has, in fact, spent much of the past two years giving progressives the boot)? Perhaps our job, post-election, is to provide a gentle but swift boot in the bee-hind of the party whose mascot is an ass.

Right now, we've got 112 hours. Seems like enough.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. I'll be on The Rachel Maddow Show tonight! Be sure to tune in to MSNBC at 9:00pm ET/PT.

Ed Poindexter is serving a life sentence at the Nebraska State Penitentiary for the 1970 murder off an Omaha policeman. Poindexter’s co-defendant, Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) has also been imprisoned 40 years. Both men were leaders of the Black Panthers in Omaha and targets of the clandestine Operation COINTELPRO and deny any involvement in the killing.

Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover conducted a massive, illegal and secret war on domestic political activists codenamed COINTELPRO that targeted thousands of groups and individuals around the nation for years. Hoover went after the Black Panthers with lethal ferocity.

Hoover had been pressuring the Omaha FBI office to get the Panther leadership off the streets for nearly a year before the August 1970 bombing death of Larry Minard. Poindexter had been targeted for harassment and had been the victim of a slanderous anonymous phone call campaign by FBI agents, the target of anonymous letters, and constant surveillance before the death off Minard gave Hoover his chance to pin the crime on the two Panthers.

Hoover ordered the withholding of evidence, a FBI crime lab report on the identity of the 911 caller who lured Minard to his death, and the jury that convicted Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa never got to hear the voice of the killer nor did they know anything about the COINTELPRO crimes committed by the FBI agents.

Ed Poindexter tells what it was like as a COINTELPRO target.

“Part of the COINTELPRO project was to harass party members around the clock, seven days a week. Never let up, try to break us or cause us to snap or drop out under the pressure, or start shooting at them to give them a reason to shoot at us. But they didn’t need a reason because there were forty-some members killed nationwide.”

“At no time did a single day go by that the police didn’t threaten to kill us. I can remember always keeping in the back of my mind be careful about what you eat, what you drink, who prepares it. Fred Hampton was drugged. Where I spent the nights to lay my head and sleep, I would be careful not to be at the same place every night, to be so predictable that they could pull that same stunt on me.”

“What I did was establish myself about a half-dozen crash pads and every night I would sleep at a different place and every week I would alter them around so they couldn’t establish a pattern.”

“One of the hottest and muggiest Augusts I can recall was in 1969. I’d left headquarters on 24th Street but decided to vary my usual route to my mother’s house. Since it was unusually quiet that evening in terms of police harassment, I decided to walk north on 24th Street instead of cutting through alley ways as usual. As I got two blocks away from headquarters a cop car cruised by and looked at me with surprise. I instantly knew there was going to be some stuff, pity the soul caught alone on a side street with no witnesses. What was going to happen was they would shoot me or beat me senseless.”

“About half way up the street I looked back to see the patrol car screech around the corner in pursuit of me. I ducked between two houses and cut through an alley. This left me about a half-block from home. Out of immediate sight, I heard the patrol car halt, the door open and slam shut, and the familiar but frightening sound of a riot pump shotgun lock and load.”

“I waited for the cops to pass. Moments later the patrol car cruised slowly past the house with its search light passing over the hedges and house. That was the longest ten seconds of my entire life.”

YouTube video prison interview with Ed Poindexter

Permission granted to reprint

Write: Ed Poindexter, #27-767, P.O. Box 2500, Lincoln, NE 68542

Freedom Archives

www.Freedomarchives.org

--
A revolution now cannot be confined to the place or people where it may commence, but flashes with lightning speed from heart to heart, from land to land, til it has traversed the globe ...
--Frederick Douglass

Here's a more detailed look at the science behind lethal injection. The Campaign to End the Death Penalty opposes the death penalty for many reasons. The fact that lethal injection is cruel and unusual is just one good reason to end capital punishment.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=capital-punishment-by-lethal-injection
Cruel and Usual?: Is Capital Punishment by Lethal Injection Quick and Painless?

About two thirds of the states use a combination of barbituric, paralytic and toxic agents for executions, despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness. Although the procedure may be subject to FDA approval, the agency has avoided any ruling on the cocktail's efficacy in delivering a merciful death

By Larry Greenemeier October 27, 2010 32

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execution, crime,drugsCRIME AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A shortage of a drug used as part of the lethal-injection cocktail in many states is delaying executions and reigniting the debate over the science behind this form of capital punishment. Pictured is a gurney used to perform executions in Terre Haute, Ind., by lethal injection.Image: COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

A shortage of sodium thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate and general anesthetic used in lethal injections of death-row convicts, has delayed several such executions throughout the U.S. and reignited a long-standing debate over the combination of chemicals used to carry out capital punishment. Most recently, Arizona inmate Jeffrey Landrigan was executed Tuesday night only after a delay caused by a legal battle over the source and quality of the sodium thiopental used as part of the lethal injection.

Lethal injection is used for capital punishment by the federal government and 36 States, at least 30 of which use the same combination of three drugs: sodium thiopental (a barbiturate to induce anesthesia), pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant that paralyzes all the muscles of the body) and potassium chloride (a salt that speeds the heart until it stops). Thisprotocol was developed in 1977 for the state of Oklahoma by then–Chief Medical Examiner Jay Chapman, but it has never been codified or sanctioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The only U.S. maker of sodium thiopental, Hospira, Inc., in Lake Forest, Ill., has reported a shortage of the raw materials needed to make the drug. When Arizona law enforcement last week declined to identify its source of the sodium thiopental intended for Landrigan, his lawyers seized on the opportunity. On October 21, they requested a stay of execution, contending that their client could suffocate painfully if the anesthetic comes from an unknown source and did not work properly before the pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride kicked in. U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver initially blocked the execution, but she was overruled Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 that a condemned prisoner does not need to know the source of the drugs used in his execution.

The Superior Court of Maricopa County, Ariz., originally sentenced Landrigan to death in 1990 after convicting him of first-degree felony murder in the strangulation and stabbing death of Chester Dean Dyer of Phoenix. At the time of the murder Landrigan was an escapee from an Oklahoma prison, where he was serving time following a conviction in that state of assault and battery with a deadly weapon, second-degree murder, and possession of marijuana.

Regardless of whether Landrigan's legal team was simply using the drug shortage as stalling tactic, their legal maneuvering brings to the fore a contentious dispute over the science (or some would say lack thereof) behind lethal injection executions in the U.S. For more than two decades, it has been argued that the FDA should be required to certify the safety and effectiveness of drugs used to carry out executions (as it does for drugs used to euthanize animals). The FDA, wanting to stay out of the capital punishment debate, disagrees.

In 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court (pdf) upheld a lower court ruling that the state ofKentucky's three-drug method of lethal injection did not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment," as defined by the Eighth Amendment. Some scientists disagree. Scientific American spoke with University of Miami Miller School of Medicine molecular biologist Teresa Zimmers about this controversial topic.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

You and a group of colleagues in 2007 published a report in PLoS Medicine that examined public records of executions. What was the purpose, and what sort of reaction did you receive?
We were actually trying to look at whether there was any evidence that the three-drug protocol—sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride—acted in the way it was supposed to act. We analyzed the time to death or the time to different events, such as cardiac arrest, in order to understand what might be the mechanism of death. We found no evidence to support the use of this protocol, the dosage of the drugs or the order in which the drugs were administered in executions.

A lot of responses to the study were negative—people assumed that we had a specific political agenda. This began to change as people looked at our data more closely. We were invited to the March 2008 Fordham Urban Law Journal Symposium, "The Lethal Injection Debate: Law and Science," by Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno to represent the medical and scientific aspects of it. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer also used our studies as part of his research for Baze v. Rees in 2008, which upheld an earlier ruling in Kentucky that the state's approach to administering lethal injections does not violate the "cruel and unusual punishments" ban promised in the Eighth Amendment. Breyer's research—our paper—did not uphold the constitutionality, but rather argued for the likelihood of unrecognized pain and suffering.

What concerned you and your colleagues about the way lethal injections are administered?
There's no record of a medical or scientific inquiry into whether this would be the best method. And there isn't any medical evidence to support this approach. Part of the paradox is that it looks like a medical procedure, but it hasn't been rigorously tested. There are no controlled trials, data collection, analysis or peer review of the processes to determine whether it works the way it's been said to work.

Why is sodium thiopental used as part of a lethal injection execution?
Sodium thiopental was chosen to render the person deeply unconscious and unable to feel the paralysis brought on by the pancuronium bromide, which causes the person to lose the ability to breathe. And the potassium chloride is extremely painful. Some people have said that three to five grams of sodium thiopental alone should be enough to induce death. [In December 2009 Ohio became the first state to use a single dose of sodium thiopental to execute death-row inmates.] We looked at whether inmates died reliably after the sodium thiopental, and it's not clear this is the case. We also determined that the doses of sodium thiopental used are not always as "massive" as claimed. It's not even clear how much a massive dose is in this context. We found that, at most, the highest doses were two times the lethal dose for animals, regardless of the inmate's weight.

It has been reported that in addition to a shortage of sodium thiopental, the doses that some states stockpile are set to expire before scheduled executions can be carried out. What sort of shelf life does sodium thiopental have?
Sodium thiopental has quite a long shelf life—up to 48 months in its unconstituted form. Once you add liquid, it's been reported to be stable for 24 hours or, if it's kept cold, it can last for seven days. They typically prepare it on the day of execution. Shelf life may be a problem because states perform executions infrequently and now don't have a supply of new doses.

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FREE RICKY CHASE
A website dedicated to Ricky Chase, and Inmate on Death Row Mississippi ... He was born on the 8th Feb 1969 and has a Daughter who was murdered last year. ...
www.saverickychase.com - Cached
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Judie S | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio
Anti DP campaigner advocate prison reformer human rights activist. Mississippi justice is ... with an inmate called Ricky Chase (who has a web page at www.saverickychase.com) ...
www.blogtalkradio.com/judie-s - 104k - Cached
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Judie S | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio - Page: 2
Anti DP campaigner advocate prison reformer human rights activist. Mississippi justice is the name we have chosen that covers a great deal of projects ...

We are a worldwide capital punishment abolition group, as well as supporting and campaigning for fairer sentencing for juveniles in the USA.

Road2Justice was born from a dream that has been over 20 years in the making. The abolition of the death penalty worldwide. Like so many I long to see a day, where human rights are protected, and the DP being the ultimate denial of those rights, must go first.

Email:road2justice10@gmail.com
Skype: Judie.wilson.spowart
Road2Justice
We are a worldwide capital punishment abolition group, as well as supporting and ... Go to www.yola.com and sign up today! Make a free website with Yola ...
www.road2justice.org

A mixed bag of news
Posted by Road at 16:29 on 27 September 2010
Hello all,

The organisation Mississippi Justice no longer exists, things happen and things change and sometimes different paths become available to us, that is what has happened with Mississippi Justice. So with the closing of the organisation, comes the closing of this cause. In many ways I am sad to see it go, it was an idea I have had for a long time, but as the situation and life evolve, we also must evolve to meet what comes our way.

There will be a new cause to not exactly replace MJ but to expand on the remit of MJ a little. The new group is the road to justice. The group and the cause will aim to work much closer and in much more depth toward abolition of the death penalty, that has always been my over riding passion and where my heart truly is. I also have a better understanding of juvenile justice due to a lovely lady who introduced me to one very special young lady she visits and loves. So I will be working closer with Juvenile justice as well as abolition. The Mississippi Justice remit was wide, ALL prison issues within the state. I feel that goal may have been a bit too much out of reach and made out work thin on the ground, this remit I feel is much more achievable.

I hope that all of you who joined this cause will hop aboard the new one, which I will be setting up today. Our actions DO make a difference and our voices CAN be heard, if we all stand united as one.

Thank you so much for all your love and support within Mississippi Justice and I look forward to the new challenges, new friends, and new problems to find solutions for.

This can and will be a GREAT cause if you all join right on up again. If you are struggling to find the link, type in road to justice on your FB browser bar, join the page and the cause link will be on there. I hope to have it up and running in the next hour or so.

I wish you all a very blessed and peaceful week.

In love, peace and solidarity.

Judie

Info.
Posted by Judie at 11:58 on 24 September 2010
Hi all,

It's with sadness I write this. I went to the Doctors this morning, and have been told I must slow down. The hours I put in, and the fact I do suffer with insomnia is taking a toll on my body. My immune system is weak at the moment, just due to me being run down and physically exhausted. Due to that I am picking up every infection going around. I have a severe skin problem at the moment, in-fact it was that, which prompted me to visit the Doctor today. I have anaemia as well, so the combination is just making me very, very tired. The Doctor gave me a six week sick note, in the belief it might make me stop all together, which is never going to happen, but I guess it did pull me up short and make me think.

Mississippi Justice is my baby, and I won't slow down on that. However, it may mean fewer bulletins coming out and less frequent news. I will have to see how things pan out. I will still do the radio shows and support the causes I have been. I will not be taking on any others for the time being, as will I not be taking on any further cases. The case of Fredrick Bell (MS Death Row) and the causes I support, are more than enough, until I feel a little stronger.

I will confess, I have kept my ill health to myself, with not even Elish being aware. I can't be doing with folk moaning about how ill they are, and I don't do it either. The only reason for this bulletin today is to allay any fears that Mississippi Justice was slowing down the work, if bulletins became less frequent (as they likely will).

Thanks to all who listened to my interview with Jerry Balone yesterday, and for all the kind worlds to both Jerry and myself. Jerry is a true inspiration, and as I said yesterday I am proud to call him a close and dear friend. His interview had the rare distinction of bringing me to the verge of tears. Thank you for everything Jerry - love you.

Have a wonderful weekend all, enjoy what ever leisure activities you have planned.

The final four defendants of the RNC 8 all took plea deals on Tuesday (October 19), ending the two-year-long court saga that began with the 2008 Republican National Convention. Rob Czernik, Garret Fitzgerald, Nathaneal Secor and Max Specktor each pled guilty to gross misdemeanor charges, and their suspended sentences mean that none of them will serve jail time.

On August 29 and 30, 2008, two days before the RNC started, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department raided the RNC Welcoming Committee Convergence Center and threehomes and arrested members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, an anarchist/anti-authoritarian group. Monica Bicking, Garrett Fitzgerald, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, and Eryn Trimmer were the first to be arrested, followed by Luce Guillen-Givens later that day. Rob Czernik and Max Specktor were arrested on September 1.

The RNC 8 were originally charged with conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree and conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property in the first degree. The two conspiracy charges were later enhanced with a terrorism charge under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, but last spring Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner dropped the terrorism enhancement.

Nathaneal Secor pled guilty to conspiracy to commit damage to property to the third degree, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail with $1000 fine which was suspended to 100 hours of community service, a $200 fine and one year of probation. Secor said at the trial that it would be disingenuous for him to state that he was at the victim of the court, but stated that Ramsey County Sheriff's Department was also guilty of crimes, exercising an "absurd degree of social control." Secor said that he would "continue to work for nothing less than liberation."

Max Specktor pled guilty to conspiracy to commit riot to the third degree, and was also sentenced to 180 days in jail with a $500 fine, which was suspended to 100 hours of community service, one year of probation, and a $200 fine. "I accept total responsibility for conspiracy,' Specktor said to Judge Teresa Warner, "but that is only part of the story." Specktor said that he refused to participate in the spectacle of democracy. "I refuse to sleep walk through life," he said.

Warner responded to Specktor, saying "You are entitled to your opinions and ideas," but that she was basing her sentencing on his actions. "This isn't about political ideals," Warner said. "This is about a criminal offense."

Rob Czernik pled guilty to conspiracy to commit riot in the third degree. Czernik refused to swear an oath with the words "under God" and was reprimanded by Warner for speaking at the same time as her. "Please don't talk while I'm talking," she said to him. When asked whether he was guilty of conspiring to commit riot, he responded "proudly." Czernik didn't give a final speech as the first two defendants had, instead saying "I'm not going to speak to the court so let's just get on with it." He was sentenced to 180 days in jail with $500 fine which was suspended to the same community service obligation as the others, and a $200 fine and two years of probation. His attorney asked why Czernik's probation time was longer than the first two defendants, to which Warner replied "I'm not here to negotiate with you," and that the decision was at the court's discretion.

Garret Fitzgerald also refused to swear an oath with the words "under God." He pled guilty to committing damage to property to the third degree. When asked whether he admitted that what he did was wrong, Fitzgerald responded "I knew it was against the law." He called the charges against him exaggerated and overblown, and said "I've never denied that I broke the law," but that "we were specifically targeted because of our political beliefs." Fitzgerald also attempted to read for the court The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, but Judge Warner did not permit him to read the whole thing. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail with a $1,000 fine, which was suspended to 100 hours of community service, a $200 fine, and two years of probation. (Press conference video below.)

Charges were dismissed against Monica Bicking, Erin Trimmer and Luce Guillen-Givens on September 16. Erik Oseland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit damage to property in the 3rd degree, a gross misdemeanor on August 27, in a deal that required him to serve a 91-day sentence in the Ramsey County Workhouse beginning on October 20. He is the only one of the RNC 8 who will serve time in jail.

--
A revolution now cannot be confined to the place or people where it may commence, but flashes with lightning speed from heart to heart, from land to land, til it has traversed the globe ...
--Frederick Douglass

JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi is expected to hire its first medical examiner in 15 years by Nov. 1, and Department of Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson said he's hopeful at least two other associate pathologists will soon be on board to help handle the state's autopsy cases.

"We have one doctor who has an engagement letter to come here Nov. 1. I'm interviewing another doctor this week in Houston (Texas), and a third has expressed an interest in coming here," Simpson said Tuesday.

Mississippi's contract with a Tennessee-based company that had been performing autopsies for the state ends Friday. Simpson said Global Forensics exercised an option to get out of the contract.

"We've not had any problems with the quality of their work at all. The doctors commute from Tennessee to Mississippi. It has given the coroners some difficulty in having the line of communication they're used to," Simpson said.

It's been nearly two years since the state terminated its contract with Dr. Steven Hayne, a pathologist who came under fire for his work in several criminal cases, including ones that resulted in the exoneration of two men who had been convicted of capital murder.

Mississippi last had a medical examiner in 1995. The void had been filled by Hayne, who handled the majority of autopsies for the state's criminal investigations.

The state's forensic investigation system came under scrutiny for Hayne's work. At the time, he didn't have American Board of Pathology certification in forensic pathology. Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law a requirement that pathologists performing autopsies for the state must be board-certified.

Simpson had previously said the state would pay $250,000 for a medical examiner. On Tuesday, he wouldn't disclose the latest salary being discussed.

Simpson said the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson will provide autopsy and medical services for the state medical examiner's office.

Simpson said the search for a medical examiner was hampered, in part, because there's a shortage of board-certified physicians. Simpson also said the state's contract with Global Forensics had required the company to assist with recruiting pathologists.

"That hadn't been happening," he said.

Earlier this year, Dr. Bruce Levy, who had been operating the Tennessee company, was arrested for possession of marijuana. Simpson suspended the state's contract with the company.

Simpson said the contract was re-negotiated and one of the terms stipulated Levy could hold no stock in the company that was providing services to Mississippi.

Local coroners said it's past time for Mississippi to have a medical examiner.

"The system that we operate under was designed to have a medical examiner in charge. If there was a discrepancy on a death between a coroner and a family, the medical examiner would hear the arguments. The medical examiner is where the buck stops," said Greg Merchant, the coroner in Lowndes County and president of the Mississippi Coroners Association.

Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley said the state actually needs to hire four or five pathologists. He said Global Forensics had a rotating staff.

"Like him or not, Hayne was basically doing what five or six are doing," Gurley said. "Even for a week, we can't be without."

A Texas inmate sentenced to die in 1994 has been released after prosecutors said today the man is innocent.
Anthony Graves was convicted of assisting Robert Earl Carter in the slaying of a grandmother, her daughter and four grandchildren in the Burleson County city of Somerville.
The dismissal comes 10 years after Carter, whose testimony convicted Graves, said in the moments before he was executed: "Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it. ... I lied on him in court."
Washington-Burleson County District Attorney Bill Parham dismissed the case after he and his team investigated the case for five months.
"He’s an innocent man," Parham said today. "There is nothing that connects Anthony Graves to this crime."
He said the dismissal was just.
"I did what I did because that’s the right thing to do, and I’m fine with it," he said.
An attorney for Graves, Jimmy Phillips, Jr. said his client was released about 5:30 p.m.
"The first place he wanted to go is to go hug his mama," Phillips said. "He is a free man and he’s home."
Kelly Siegler, a prosecutor hired to re-try Graves, agreed with Parham.
"After months of investigation and talking to every witness who’s ever been involved in this case and people who’ve never been talked to before, after looking under every rock we could find, we found not one piece of credible evidence that links Anthony Graves to the commission of this capital murder," Siegler said.
"This is not a case where the evidence went south with time or witnesses passed away or we just couldn’t make the case anymore. He is an innocent man."
In 2006, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Graves deserved a new trial after ruling that prosecutors elicited false statements from two witnesses and withheld two statements that could have changed the minds of jurors.
The victims, Bobbie Davis, 45; her 16-year-old daughter, Nicole; and Davis’ four grandchildren, ages 4 to 9,were shot and stabbed inside Davis’ house, which was set aflame to cover the crime.
Graves had been moved from death row to the Burleson County Jail to await a new trial

Court Rules Ashcroft Can Be Held Liable For U.S. Citizen’s Post 9/11 Detention

The Situation

One of the cases the Supreme Court of the United States will take up in its 2011 session is Ashcroft vs. al-Kidd. John Ashcroft was the Attorney General under President George Bush Jr. In that capacity he appears to have knowingly violated the U.S. Constitution (as well as periodically forced his employees to listen to his horrendous singing voice). Abdullah al-Kidd is a Muslim American citizen who Ashcroft illegally ordered detained through the illicit use of a material witness warrant. Kidd was one of 70 detained in this manner. He was picked up at Dulles International Airport after the FBI lied to a judge in order to get the warrant for his seizure. Al-Kidd was subsequently held for long periods in a security cell where the lights never went out.

That John Ashcroft is the criminal and al-Kidd his victim is certain. That is how the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sees it. That court has refused to dismiss al-Kidd’s lawsuit against Ashcroft noting that the former Attorney General can be held personally responsible for action “repugnant to the Constitution.” That he knowingly and criminally acted to “arrest and detain American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wants to investigate them for possible wrongdoing.” Ashcroft’s lawyers avoid the question of the illegality of his actions and simply say that he is immune from lawsuits for actions he took as Attorney General. On that basis they have asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the suit. The Justices have now decided to consider Ashcroft’s request.

Certainly John Ashcroft is not the first high U.S. official to reveal himself as an alleged criminal. Nor is it the first time that high government officials have acted in an unconstitutional manner. Right out of the starting gate , so to speak, the young United States created the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) through which the Federalist party sought, quite unconstitutionally, to jail its political opponents. Andrew Jackson spit in the eye of both the Supreme Court and the Constitution by evicting the Cherokee Indians (1838), James Polk should have been impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors for lying to the Congress in order to start the Mexican-American War (1846), Abraham Lincoln probably violated the Constitution by some of his police actions during the Civil War, the raids and deportations that took place as a result of the Red Scares of the 1920s were at least in part unconstitutional, then you have Watergate, Irangate and now multiple potential Bushgates. Few of the politicians who ordered these criminal actions, or those who carried out those orders, ever faced punishment. [NOT TO SPEAK OF COINTELPRO]

The Position of the Obama Administration

What is interesting about the present case of Ashcroft vs. al-Kidd is that the Obama administration has decided to make illegality acceptable by institutionalizing the concept of immunity for highly placed men like Ashcroft. The administration will try to do this not through legislation, but through precedent– by defending Ashcroft’s claim to immunity before the Supreme Court. At first it seems strange that a professed liberal president such as Barack Obama would do this. But unfortunately, it is quite consistent with the illiberal stance he has maintained on the question of the constitutional responsibility of his predecessors in the Bush White House. From the beginning of his presidency, Obama decided to shield them from the consequences of their crimes. This position was initiated by the president’s “we should look forward” statement in January of 2009. In this statement he made it clear that he did not want to pursue those who had ordered or implemented (in this case) torture under the Bush administration. When popular pressure forced the president to allow his attorney general , Eric Holder, to open an investigation of the issue of torture it was arranged so the inquiry would have no teeth. Publically and up front we were told that no one would be prosecuted whatever the outcome of the probe. That is the last anyone has heard of Holder’s investigation of torture American style. The long and short of this is that the principle set down at Nuremberg, to wit following orders is no excuse for criminal behavior, will not be applied. Nor will giving the orders incur a penalty. The decision to defend Ashcroft’s claim of immunity is in solid accord with this position.

The logic of this position, and its likely consequences, warrants close examination. If we were to ask President Obama why he has decided to defend the immunity of alleged criminals who happen to be high government officials, and if he were to be perfectly candid in his reply, here is what he might say:

1. President Obama – It would be difficult for the president, or those who carry out his orders, to act freely and as needed if they had always to worry about litigation after the fact. This is particularly true in time of war and emergency.

My Reply – This assertion has been made by leaders of states from time immemorial. It is a variation on the raison d’etat argument that has historically allowed all manner of bad behavior under the guise of state interests. On the other hand, it is true that following the law can prove inconvenient under wartime or emergency conditions. Nonetheless, in the long run, lawlessness is much worse than inconvenience. It is to be noted that, in the American case, appointed and elected high officials (particularly attorney generals!) are sworn to uphold the law not to transgress it.

2. President Obama – While I have stopped the more egregious policies of the Bush administration, I am still responsible for the safety of all American citizens and, in our modern age, I have to be able to use all the methods, high tech and otherwise, to achieve this goal. Some of these methods might very well prove unconstitutional (warrantless wiretaps, for instance) and yet I must be free to use them because another 9/11 style attack must be prevented. And, if I am to use these methods, then I can not prosecute those who have done so before me. Otherwise I would be accused of being a hypocrite by my political foes.

My Reply – This argument juxtaposes unattainable 100% security against the traditional freedoms that makes America the country its founders intended. Do we want to sacrifice the latter for the illusion of the former? As James Madison once observed, “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home.” That is the slippery slope President Obama seems willing to take us down. It also prioritizes the president’s political interests over the Constitution. This latter point of view can be carried further.

3. President Obama – You have to understand, that if I do not do all that is possible, be it constitutional or otherwise, to protect the nation I put myself in mortal political danger. I open myself to the accusation by my political rivals that I am “soft” on security or terrorism. And, if something does happen, such as another terrorist attack, then I am politically dead.

My Reply – Well, yes, this is so. However, what is also true is that prioritizing politics above law always leads us in the direction of corruption, or worse. By defending Ashcroft isn’t President Obama saying it is all right to break the law if you are highly placed and so lacking in imagination that you can not figure out a legal way of dealing with an emergency? For let us be clear, there is no evidence that after 9/11 the unconstitutional route was the only possible route to defend the country. Were the legal options and their constitutional variants ever seriously itemized and discussed? The Obama administration, like the Bush operatives, have never publically addressed this question.

Likely Consequences

If the Obama Justice Department proceeds with its plans to defend Ashcroft’s immunity claim and if, as is likely, the Supreme Court upholds that claim, we will be left with a politically based two tier legal system. It will set free to break the law every highly placed federal official every time he or she can claim an emergency situation. Then, after the fact, they will cite the immunity precedent. In the meantime, the fact that high federal officials are sworn to uphold the laws of the land will be rendered worthless, just another bit of political hypocrisy.

So what is it that we want for America? Do we want a two tier legal system where presidents and their appointees can break the law with impunity? Do we want a legal system where it is accepted that citizens and residents can disappear into federal dungeons? Is it all right with us that our fellow citizens, following the orders of the president, will torture, detain, shackle and otherwise abuse others without any regard for law – and they too will be immune? Because, whether they realize it or not, that is what the Obama Justice Department is arguing for when it defends John Ashcroft.

Dwight Eisenhower once asked the question, “how far can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?” It is time for us to ask this question about the heinous “security” tactics of President George Bush Jr. as well as President Barack Obama’s unfortunate willingness to defend them.

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A revolution now cannot be confined to the place or people where it may commence, but flashes with lightning speed from heart to heart, from land to land, til it has traversed the globe ...
--Frederick Douglass

Political prisoner and former Black Panther Marshall “Eddie” Conway spoke via telephone to an attentive crowd of students, staff, and faculty to spark Sunday evening’s Ujamaa Unity Hour discussion on prisons and their impact on the African-American community.

Conway, who is currently serving the 40th year of his life sentence at Jessup Correctional Insitution in Maryland, touched on the prison-industrial complex as it manifests in Maryland, where the majority of prisons are located in rural areas characterized by predominantly white populations. He also discussed his work in creating a mentoring program that emphasizes the need for positive role models in the Maryland prison system’s youth population.

Prof. Margaret Washington, history, contributed scholarly analysis to Conway’s lived experience, citing large increases in the incarceration rates of African American males in the United States since 1980. She also stressed the fact that the notion of economic labor cannot be divorced from that of incarceration.

“With the current [economic] situation being what it is, African Americans are no longer needed as laborers. When a huge population that has always served as labor no longer serves that function, what do you do with the surplus labor?” Washington said. “From an economic perspective, prison is a form of slavery, or you can say it’s a form of concentration camp.”

The historical context provided the framework for Prof. Mary Katzenstein, government, to contest the notion that prisons offer local benefits to their surrounding communities in the form of employment opportunities. She cited the example of Five Points Correctional Facility, saying that high-paying prison jobs discourage the predominantly white local population from pursuing higher education.

Speaking to the perception that prison successfully rehabilitates inmates, Katzenstein pointed out that people who spend long periods of time in prison exhibit the lowest rates of recidivism, while those who spend brief periods of time in prison most commonly become repeat offenders.

Jim Schechter, executive director of the Cornell Prison Education Program, added to the discussion, noting the strides that the program has made at Auburn Correctional Facility and Cayuga Correction Facility since its inception, especially for the prisoners. The program provides a pathway to an Associate of Arts degree for men incarcerated at the Auburn and Cayuga Correctional Facilities.

“[The Cornell Prison Education Program] contributes to people’s self-esteem in what we all recognize is an otherwise dehumanizing environment,” he said, adding that the classroom functions as a “sanctuary” from the rest of the prison experience.Cornell faculty who participate in the program report a higher level of engagement from the inmates than from Cornell students, according to Schechter.

“There’s no sense of entitlement, no Blackberries, no laptops,” Schechter said. “The students at Auburn come to class having done the readings two, maybe three, times.”

Janet Nwaukoni ’12, president of Project Lansing, and Adam Baratz ’11, president of Art Beyond Cornell, explained the work their organizations do on campus to immediately address the needs of prisons near Ithaca.

Members of Project Lansing interact weekly with young females at Lansing Residential Center to build mentorships and friendships that foster intellectual and personal growth. Members of Art Beyond Cornell bring weekly art lessons to Lansing Residential Center and MacCormick Secure Center to offer a means of expression and growth for the institutionalized youth.

“We want these young women [at Lansing Residential Center] to know that there are African American females who come from similar backgrounds and that it’s possible to succeed,” Nwaukoni said.

“These facilities are extraordinarily understaffed, and Cornell has such a vast array of resources to help fill that void,” Baratz said. “The work we do is really important because the youth there really look forward to it each week.”

Ken Glover, residence hall director of Schuyler House and former residence hall director of Ujamaa, identified flaws with the prison system.

“If you wanted to change the rates of recidivism, you’d require [inmates] to get a GED,” Glover said, referring to a statistic mentioned by Schechter that approximately 250 out of 1,800 inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility have GEDs or high school diplomas. “How can you support your kids [when you get out of prison] if you can’t get a GED and you can’t get a job?”

He also brought the discussion back to Conway and the issue of political prisoners.

“The question of political prisoners goes beyond the context of the United States,” Glover said, citing notable political prisoners including Nelson Mandela, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Patrice Lumumba. “Whenever there’s been a movement for social change, people who speak out [for change] are imprisoned.”

“The discussion revealed how prevalent the incarceration system is just in upstate New York,” Khamila Alebiosu ’13 said. “While we like to stay within the Cornell bubble, there’s so much we can do to reach out and change this system that has dehumanized and degraded people that have come largely from the African American community.”

Theoria Cason, the residence hall director of Ujamaa, found the discussion informative and saw hope in the various Cornell programs that try to address needs of institutionalized people in local facilities.

“This discussion helped me recognize the dissonance that exists between Ithaca and the facilities that lie just 20 minutes down the road,” she said. “I really appreciate the work that is being done in the immediate areas around Ithaca.”

The discussion, entitled “Prisons and Race: The Impact On Our Community,” was organized by Black Students United.

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A revolution now cannot be confined to the place or people where it may commence, but flashes with lightning speed from heart to heart, from land to land, til it has traversed the globe ...
--Frederick Douglass

Security and privacy concerns cited

By Mike Ward

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 1:49 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, 2010

In a new push to keep confidential details about the drugs used in Texas executions, state prison officials are asking Attorney General Greg Abbott to declare the information a state secret.

Details like how much of the three lethal drugs they keep on hand, whom the state buys the drugs from and how much taxpayers spend on them.
Their reasoning: Making that information public might trigger violent protests outside the execution chamber in Huntsville or even embolden death penalty opponents, if they knew the state was about to run short of the drugs.
"We submit that the release of any of the \u2026 information would be akin to a local DPS office providing a requestor (a potential terrorist) with how much ammunition was stored in the office," states a letter to Abbott from Patricia Fleming, an assistant general counsel for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
"As to the amounts of state money paid to the individual suppliers, if this information were to be released, the requestor could determine the amounts of the products purchased simply by consulting his neighborhood pharmacist, or pharmaceutical wholesaler or retailer."
The latest secrecy bid was prompted by a request from the Austin American-Statesman for information about suppliers and costs of the three-drug cocktail used to execute condemned prisoners, following news reports last month that supplies of one drug — sodium thiopental — were running low in other states and executions were being delayed.
In years past, some of that information was released by prison officials — including that they usually kept enough drugs on hand to carry out two executions.
The agency's secrecy request, the latest move by several agencies to keep information confidential from taxpayers by citing security concerns, has raised eyebrows of some prison officials who acknowledge that some of the information had been disclosed previously without question.
But Melinda Bozarth, the prison system's general counsel, defended the request for secrecy as appropriate. "We want to err on the side of caution \u2026 so that no one is put at risk, that there is not any disruption," she said.
In Fleming's filing with Abbott, the agency outlined its case for keeping secrets. Fleming wrote that "common law privacy" exempts the information from release under the Texas Public Information Act if its release could cause someone to "face an imminent threat of physical danger."
Fleming further argued that the release of details about the drugs could trigger violence.
"Executions are inherently volatile events," Fleming wrote. "The rhetoric of opponents of the death penalty has become increasingly violent to the point where we not only had large crowds voicing their objections, but even had a group of militants outside the Huntsville Unit armed with various weapons, including assault rifles."
"The TDCJ has been lucky in that those gathered or picketing outside the Huntsville Unit on a scheduled execution date have never fired weapons or even used knives; but, both of these events are very real possibilities and amount to more than a generalized and speculative fear of harassment of retribution," she continued.
"If the (American-Statesman) published how much sodium thiopental we currently have and when it expires, this would operate to inflame an already volatile situation \u2026 People could get seriously injured or killed."
Two other prison officials said few protestors show up for most executions and there have been no threats or violence, even arrests, in years. The officials asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak about security issues.
Firearms are prohibited within 1,000 feet of the death chamber by a longtime state law.
Several protestors carried AK-47s when condemned murderer Gary Graham, 36, was executed in June 2000. But police said at the time they could not arrest them for carrying the weapons, since state law allows Texans to openly carry such weapons as long as they do not shoot them or threaten others with them.
On Thursday evening, as the state executed convicted killer Larry Wooten in Huntsville, 10 to 15 anti-death penalty protesters stood outside, about a block away from the prison that houses the execution chamber, according to the Associated Press. One woman used a bullhorn to say, "The state of Texas has committed another murder."
Bozarth said that security concerns could arise at any time, though she is not aware of any new threats or issues with protestors.

Welcome To My World

About Me

DARCY D= YOU MUST BELIEVE.STANDING UP FOR THE INNOCENT C.E.O
The United Kingdom resident champions causes of the voiceless, the powerless and the weak, particularly in North America. She campaigns for petitions on behalf of incarcerated human trafficking.